View full sizeThomas Boyd / The OregonianTim Davis, 42, holds a photograph of his son, Ryan Lee Johnson, 22, who was shot to death last week outside an Aloha grocery store. After learning of the shooting, Davis raced to the scene, where he could see his son lying on the sidewalk.

Ryan Johnson and his stepbrother, Austin Putney, headed to an Aloha grocery store last week with $2 to buy a pizza stick for each of them.

Minutes later, Tim Davis' phone rang. Hysteria hit him from the other end.

"He was shot in the head," Putney frantically continued. "He's been killed."

Nearly forgetting shoes, Davis bolted out of his home. He drove the short distance to the Bales Thriftway, off Southwest Farmington Road. At the store, yellow police tape stretched across the parking lot.

Davis drove his red truck toward the crime scene. He plowed through part of the tape and into chaos. Cops, police cars, tape, people -- everywhere.

He hurried out of his truck.

"I could tell it was my son lying on the pavement," he said. "I tried to run to him, but several deputies grabbed me."

Johnson was lying on the sidewalk in front of the store near soft drink machines.

Davis struggled with the cops. Couldn't he just see his son? No, police told him. He screamed and cried.

"That's really all I remember," he said.

No warning

Ryan Lee Johnson, 22, was shot to death shortly before 3:20 p.m. on Jan. 26 as he approached the grocery store. The Washington County Sheriff's Office has accused Jeffrey Brian Johnson, 52, of being the man who walked up to Ryan Johnson and shot him multiple times.

On Tuesday afternoon, Davis' Aloha home was filled with family and friends. At times, they shared memories of Johnson, as Davis told his story. Photographs of his son were scattered atop his dining table.

Ryan Johnson had driven to the Thriftway that day. He parked near the front of the store. Putney got out first, Davis said, and Johnson followed.

Putney saw a man with a gun walking behind his brother, Davis said, but he had no time to warn him.

"He couldn't make a noise," Davis said. "He had already been firing bullets out of the gun."

While Putney called Davis, multiple witnesses called 9-1-1. On the phone, Putney sounded panicked, uncontrolled.

"Everything he said, he repeated several times to me," Davis recalled.

Putney recognized the suspect, Davis said, and another witness followed the man, who had fled in a vehicle.

Within about 30 minutes, authorities arrested Jeffrey Brian Johnson near Sherwood. He's been charged with one count of murder in Washington County Circuit Court.

An autopsy determined that Ryan Johnson died of gunshot wounds to the head, according to the state medical examiner's office. Authorities have not said how many times he was shot.

Jeffrey Johnson is the father of Ryan Johnson's former girlfriend, Megan, and the grandfather of their 3-year-old son. A custody case between the young parents began last January.

In March, Ryan Johnson was charged with six counts of telephonic harassment against Megan Johnson. A no-contact order associated with the case limited communication between the parents. At times, Megan Johnson designated her father as an intermediary between her and Ryan Johnson. On March 17, Ryan Johnson pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation.

Later that month, Ryan Johnson filed a petition for parenting time in court. He wrote that his son's mother "has cut off all contact as of March 1" and asked to see his son 15 hours a week "until our custody battle is settled."

In May, a court order set Ryan Johnson's visitation with his son for two hours, twice a week, at Jeffrey Johnson's home.

The young parents continued to take back-and-forth court actions in the case.

Court records filed by Megan Johnson say that Jeffrey Johnson witnessed Ryan Johnson abusing his daughter and grandson at one of the peaks in the custody dispute.

The two parents spent the morning of Oct. 8 arguing about Ryan Johnson's visit with his son. He took his son to the pumpkin patch that day. By 1:30 p.m. when Ryan Johnson returned the boy to Megan Johnson, she had called police and summoned Jeffrey Johnson.

Megan Johnson and her father met Ryan Johnson in her apartment complex parking lot. Ryan Johnson pushed her into a car door and rammed a carseat buckle into his son's abdomen, she wrote. Jeffrey Johnson intervened, positioning himself in front of his daughter and grandson, the records say.

On Oct. 17, Megan Johnson filed a motion, citing the incident and asking to take away Ryan Johnson's parenting time.

Ryan Johnson requested a court hearing the same day. "The accusations are false and the relationship between Jeff Johnson is not healthy," he wrote.